Chapter 16: Diary and Unlicensed Street Vending
Tan Shuchang’s Cultivation Diary:
Zi Xuan Dynasty, Emperor Yi Year, July, the seventh day.
Living people inevitably get involved with worldly matters, and I thought that carrying sleeves of fresh breeze made me clear-headed. It wasn’t until the end that I realized that this breeze in my sleeves cannot be used as a Magic Artifact.
Without a suitable Magic Artifact, venturing too far outside could mean never returning.
Therefore, I still cannot leave the Yuezhou Qingping mountain range, this secluded corner.
Fortunately, today I had a bountiful harvest.
Tan Shuchang had already decided not to keep a diary anymore, to prevent it from being stolen again, but then he thought that no Cultivator would be bored enough to care about his diary, so taking advantage of his good mood today, he wrote a little in his diary.
"Next, it will be eight fierce ghosts, but it’s not hard to gather them in a place where humans and ghosts dwell together..." After carefully stowing away this entry and concealing it on his person, Tan Shuchang couldn’t help but start thinking about that place where humans and ghosts coexist.
After all, that place holds too many cultivation resources that he needs!
However, before going there, Tan Shuchang decided to review the dozen or so bamboo scrolls he had brought out beforehand.
If ghost arts are the powers from the mysterious game, then no matter what, he must understand them.
He opened the first bamboo scroll.
All these scrolls looked the same, so Tan Shuchang had just picked one up at random.
Upon opening it, he found no text inside, but the moment he did, Tan Shuchang felt a force attempting to enter his body.
If it had been someone who had not cultivated before, they would have been instantly possessed by this force, but Tan Shuchang, with his cultivation and fifteen years of cultivation experience, immediately blocked this force.
"This feels a bit like a transformation of Yin Sha..." Tan Shuchang frowned slightly, because he could not determine what this force was, so he simply forced it out of his body with his cultivation.
And as soon as it left his body, that force instantly dissipated into nothingness.
Without a sound, it just disappeared.
At this moment, Tan Shuchang noticed that the bamboo scroll he had opened was rapidly disintegrating. In just two or three breaths, the scroll gradually turned into a pile of powder.
It was as if decades had passed by in mere moments in his hands.
"Could it be that opening the scroll and letting that force enter the body is the way to obtain the ghost arts?" Tan Shuchang speculated.
So he picked up another bamboo scroll and opened it.
Since they were all picked up conveniently, even if he wasted another one, Tan Shuchang wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of regret.
And this scroll was just like the previous one.
This confirmed for Tan Shuchang that this force was indeed the ghost arts from the eerie game, and the way to acquire ghost arts was to accept the force that surged out of the bamboo scrolls.
However, it’s not just living beings that are harmed when Yin Sha enters the body; even Cultivators, if they have not refined the Yin Sha, would be greatly damaged by allowing it to enter their bodies.
And even the refined Yin Sha is not easy to handle; it requires continuous nourishment with one’s own blood essence.
Among Demon Cultivators, there are those who cultivate Yin Sha, and such Demon Cultivators are all emaciated like they have been addicted to opium for decades, with deep-set eyes, rough skin, and a face full of dead, flaking skin. Just a slight pull, and a large piece of skin flakes could fall off their face...
And those skin flakes cannot be pieced back together because they are toxic.
No matter how beautiful a woman is, once she cultivates this Demon Art that refines Yin Sha, she instantly turns into a dried-up corpse, as if sucked dry by a tree demon granny.
Thus, there’s a saying within the ranks of Demon Cultivators—without a deep hatred, who would cultivate Yin Sha as a normal person.
Based on this, it was impossible for Tan Shuchang to even consider letting this power enter his body, even if it was just a suspected Yin Sha force. He couldn’t possibly use himself as an experiment.
So, without hesitation, a thought crossed Tan Shuchang’s mind.
The attribute frame emerged.
Tan Shuchang’s gaze immediately fixed on the mask icon.
The next instant, he arrived at the land where humans and ghosts cohabitated, looking at the familiar market. Without hesitation, he shook out a piece of black cloth and placed all the remaining bamboo slips on it.
Then, after thinking for a bit, he also placed the two fingers on it.
He had examined these two fingers carefully, both were just segments, and although they contained strange powers and were incredibly hard, making them suitable for artifact refining, he was not skilled in artifact refining. Even if they were of high quality, all he could do was look at them.
Rather than wasting them, it was better to make the most of them, setting them at the stall for fishing wasn’t a bad idea.
And very quickly, a figure appeared in front of Tan Shuchang’s stall. It was a blurred and twisted figure, like a dry corpse burning with black flames, exuding an incredibly fierce aura. When it appeared, a wave of malice directly assailed Tan Shuchang.
This was a domain of malice, a trait of powerful ferocious ghosts.
It also was a deadly entity that killed silently.
In the bizarre game, most of the B-level super players died at the hands of such ferocious ghosts. Moreover, they didn’t die after an intense fight with the ghosts, but were overtaken by the malice in an encounter, which shattered their consciousness.
However, for Tan Shuchang, this naturally had no effect.
Because the stone ball ferocious ghost he had captured before was of this level...
So upon seeing that rich aura of Yin Sha, Tan Shuchang was somewhat delighted. Indeed, coming here to fish was the right choice.
Just then, he heard the ferocious ghost speak in human language, "You are breaking the rules!"
The ghost’s speech wasn’t as clear as the stone ball ghost’s, but it wasn’t so muddled that one couldn’t understand.
"What rule am I breaking?" Tan Shuchang asked out of curiosity.
"Setting up a stall without a license!"
Tan Shuchang: "..."
Then, looking at the ghost, Tan Shuchang suddenly realized that although it kept saying he was breaking the rules, it didn’t seem to intend to act further.
Tan Shuchang, who was somewhat educated, immediately understood what the ghost was getting at.
He then said, "This is my first time here; I didn’t know the rules. I don’t know where the more secluded places are. Could you please take me there? I would like to obtain a permit with your assistance."
His words were very straightforward.
The ghost heard this and immediately nodded, apparently quite satisfied with Tan Shuchang’s understanding. It then gestured for him to follow and immediately walked towards the outskirts of the market.
Tan Shuchang packed up his things and followed.
Before long, he saw the ghost stop around a corner where no one was present, then heard it say, "Bring out the good stuff!"
Tan Shuchang saw that indeed nobody was around, so he confidently approached the ghost.
A moment later, Tan Shuchang returned from the way he had come, to the spot where he had been earlier, and continued to set up his unlicensed stall.
Quickly, another figure appeared in front of his stall.
"Sir, this is my first time here; I only just learned that a permit is needed to set up a stall. May I be allowed to temporarily obtain a permit?" Tan Shuchang did not wait for the person to speak, immediately addressing them.